Straus dismisses Armey as ‘some former congressman’

Texas House Speaker Joe Straus dismissed former U.S. House Majority leader Dick Armey as “some former congressman” when asked Tuesday about Armey’s group endorsing his challenger.

FreedomWorks said Monday it’s backing state Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, for speaker, painting Hughes as a more reliable conservative and taking issue with Straus doing such things as appointing some Democrats to head House committees.

The appointment of lawmakers from both parties to head committees is a legislative tradition that has also been followed in the Texas Senate. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst came under fire for the same practice in his unsuccessful U.S. Senate race against former state solicitor general Ted Cruz.

“I plan to continue to do the job as I have in two sessions. which is to treat all the members with respect and to treat the process with respect, and I continue to reject litmus tests for politics,” Straus said after a speech to the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. “ I’m going to focus on an agenda that includes improving public and higher education … concentrate on water and the necessary infrastructure for a growing state that will be 33 million Texans in the year 2030.

“And I’m less concerned about some former congressman,” Straus said. “I’m focused on the future of the state of Texas.”

Asked whether that’s all Armey is, Straus said, “I’ve never met him, so I don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about it.”

Straus repeatedly emphasized his focus on education, resources and infrastructure and said he will continue “including people who are elected to public office regardless of party.”

“It’s one thing that I would hope that former Congressman Armey and I would agree on, is that Washington should become more like Texas, not Texas become more like Washington. And so I reject, I reject, a system where only one party participates. We’ve seen how that works in Washington, D.C., and I would say not very well.”